I have been waiting for it to happen. Every year for the last 4 years I have awaited this moment on this day. I knew it would happen someday and this year it did.

Ashli came to me and said, “I hate this.” She was filling out Valentine’s Day cards. I asked what was going on and she said that she was having a hard time picking which cards to give to which boys. Not because she liked them, but because she didn’t. She wanted to make sure that the boys wouldn’t think she liked them based of her Valentines.

I remember the same thing going through my mind when I was a kid. There was also the anxiety over which one to give to the girl you really liked so that she might intuit that you liked her and wanted her to be your Valentine for real. Boys have the added disadvantage of having to give cards to other boys. As there are usually 5 out of the pack of 20 that say something like “You are super!” All the rest always had cutesy Valentine’s phrases. So unless you were in a classroom with only 5 boys, there were going to be boys that got a “Be mine, Valentine” from you.

Odd thing, after I got my cards, I never really looked to see what the boys or girls cards said that I didn’t like. I only had eyes for the one from the girl(s) that I had crushes on. Those little slips of folded paper never revealed any romance, but it didn’t stop me from worrying about it every year. Glad to see my neurosis was passed down.

Not everyone cares about Austrian Prejudice, so I have come up with some more reasons to Boycott planet fitness.

1. The lunk alarm- Apparently, planet fitness has an alarm that goes off is someone is slamming weights (reasonable), lifting a whole lot of weight (safety issues, maybe) or is grunting(?). What, it is a gym right? The lunk alarm is apparently a way for them to get rid of the body building/weightlifting crowd. I guess this is in an effort to keep roids out of the gym. What I hear is that you are not allowed to push yourself. I am not a bodybuilder, but when I work out, I grunt or moan. At least I am breathing right. It is a dumb rule and I am sure that people will tone down their workout so the don’t get the alarm blared at them. Every Planet fitness I have been to has about a billion people on the treadmill all with iPods stuck in their ears and an almost empty weight room. Now I know why.

2. Free Pizza- Yeah, they give out free pizza once a month. But wait, it isn’t just free pizza, it is all you can eat free Pizza. Most people at the gym are running away from pizza and foods like that. The people are there to either lose or maintain current weight. Pizza is there enemy, and all you can eat free pizza is their arch nemesis. Wait there is more. Free bagels once a week. Sure it is nice to get a breakfast on the go, but bagels are evil because you almost have to put that free crème cheese on them. I think these days cater to the marathon crowd. I know when I ran marathons, I didn’t care what I ate, because it was all going into the furnace. I could eat 4k calories a day and not gain a pound. I would have literally ate these days up.

Really for 10 bucks a month it is worth it just for all you can eat pizza!

3. Judgment free Zone- So you aren’t allowed to be judgmental at Planet Fitness. I guess that means no correcting peoples form so they don’t injure themselves. But aren’t they being judgmental. Hey, you, big guy with the muscles. We don’t want your kind here. Hey stop grunting, you are making this guy curling 3 pound weights feel bad. Planet Fitness is in the business of judging others, it seems.

So, it looks like Planet Fitness is all about cardio to me. There is no grunting in cardio and runners like it quiet so they can hear their iPods. Runners are usually sticks because they burn muscle as well as fat, so PF gets rid of the intimidating muscle guys. Free pizza and bagels. Yep, runners are all over that. Why not just call it planet treadmill.

Who loses here? Obviously the weightlifters lose out on a $10 dollar per month gym membership. New people lose out too, though. Say a person wants to get into shape but doesn’t want to run 40 miles a week to do it. They also don’t want to spend hundreds of dollars on a home gym. $10 a month sounds like a great deal. The decide to join so they can start working out. They get there and there are no gym rats there to help them with their form so they get the most benefit for the least risk. They lose mentors. In the spring and summer when the runners hop off the dreadmill and hit the street there aren’t going to be many people in the place at all. New person tries to lift some appropriate wait but finds himself straining at the 8th rep and wants to grunt, so he stops right when he is getting the most benefit.

Planet Fitness is just planet cardio

They go from no judgment to judgment. How is not their planet, yours equal judgment free?

Planet Fitness apparently thinks it is okay to discriminate against Austrians. The sales guy’s attitude does a complete 180 when he hears the accent. Until he finally leads the poor guy outside and locks him out. The commercial ends with the words, not his planet… yours. Is this aimed at all foreigners or just Austrians. The ending is really scary as it says that this guy doesn’t even deserve a place on our planet. Is planet fitness suggesting genocide. Maybe it starts with the Austrians but where does it stop. You shouldn’t have to hid your nationality in order to work out.

Join me in boycotting this company for their discriminatory actions. Austrians have just as much right to this planet as the rest of us. Sure they are a private company and can deny service to anyone they want legally, but we don’t have to stand back and support this rhetoric with our gym memberships.

I hate the internet right now. Everyone is a political commentator. Apparently that involves vitriol. Pure poison spewing hate. It is no longer possible in this age to have a civil discussion about politics. People believe that their views are the correct and most logical views and feel a need to insult the other view. This is generally done from a place of ignorance.

There are blogs and FB friends that I can hardly stomach anymore because of the hate the spews forth from their blogs and status updates. These people should realize that when most of what you read from them is poison, it actually poison’s the way you see them.

I am not overly political. I have my views but I hope that I respect the views of others. I hope that none of my post come across as hate filled tirades. Sure I go for a humorous low blow from time to time, but I would like to thank I am even handed there.

I have watched a lot of movies recently involving ancient Greece; both Clash of the Titans, Troy, 300, and last night the last half of Percy Jackson. I have come to the conclusion that the Ancient Greeks spoke with an British accent. Only actors from the UK have a chance at any of these roles. I am pretty sure the ancient Greeks didn’t speak English at all, so why the actor discrimination. If you want foreign actors to play these roles get Greeks with Greek accents. I know we are the movie going public and can’t tell the difference, but put some effort in here.

Maybe it is because these are Hollywood movies and Hollywood only knows about British actors. Maybe when they do a movie in the UK about the ancient Greeks they use American Actors to give us that foreign sound. No, they probably use Australians. I wonder what Australia uses?

I don’t see this changing and really see it going further with the Thor movie coming out, as I believe most of the Norse Gods will have British Accents as well. The Doctor from Doctor Who is an alien and he has British accent but that is a British show so it is therefore excused. In Star Trek: The Next Generation, we had a Brit playing a Frenchman.

Hollywood, there are more accents other than the ones from the British Isles. Sure India was a British Colony but I doubt that the entire country of India is populated by people with a Londoner accent. Obviously realism doesn’t matter when making these movies so just cast whomever from wherever. Don’t put the accent litmus test into the auditions. I am sure that there are women that will say that Hollywood should but Gerard Butler into every movie, but that is something different altogether.